<\/p>\n
Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar attends the first, out-of-town cabinet meeting of the new Tisza government in Opusztaszer, Hungary, Wednesday, May 13, 2026. (Robert Hegedus\/MTI via AP)<\/p>\n
Robert Hegedus\/AP<\/p>\n
Russia’s ambassador to Hungary, Evgeny Stanislavov, is surrounded by media as he leaves the Hungarian Foreign Ministry building after being summoned by Foreign Minister Anita Orban over a massive drone attack near Hungary’s border with Ukraine, in Budapest, Thursday, May 14, 2026.<\/p>\n
AP<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Peter Magyar, right, and Foreign Minister Anita Orban during the appointment ceremony of ministers of the Tisza government at the presidential Alexander Palace in Budapest, Hungary, Tuesday, May 12, 2026. (Szilard Koszticsak\/MTI via AP)<\/p>\n
Szilard Koszticsak\/AP<\/p>\n
Russia’s ambassador to Hungary, Evgeny Stanislavov, is surrounded by media as he leaves the Hungarian Foreign Ministry building after being summoned by Foreign Minister Anita Orban over a massive drone attack near Hungary’s border with Ukraine, in Budapest, Thursday, May 14, 2026.<\/p>\n
AP<\/p>\n
BUDAPEST (AP) \u2014 Russia’s ambassador to Hungary was summoned Thursday over a massive drone attack near Hungary\u2019s border with Ukraine, in a stark example of the about-face in relations with Moscow ushered in by the election of Prime Minister P\u00e9ter Magyar after years of cozy ties under his predecessor, Viktor Orb\u00e1n.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
An Associated Press reporter saw Ambassador Evgeny Stanislavov leaving the Hungarian Foreign Ministry less than 30 minutes after arriving for an official summons to speak with Foreign Minister Anita Orb\u00e1n about strikes that hit the Ukrainian region of Transcarpathia on Wednesday. The region is home to a sizable Hungarian minority.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI told the Russian ambassador that it was completely unacceptable for Hungary that they were now attacking Transcarpathia, home of the Hungarian minority,” Anita Orb\u00e1n said in a social media post after the meeting. \u201cI stressed that Russia should do everything for an immediate ceasefire and a peaceful and lasting end to the war as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Russian government has not made any public statements on the summons.<\/p>\n
When the ambassador left the Foreign Ministry building on the banks of the Danube, an activist yelled at him in Hungarian, \u201cComrade, it’s over!\u201d<\/p>\n
Russia fired at least 800 drones in a massive daytime barrage Wednesday targeting about 20 regions of Ukraine including Transcarpathia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. At least six people were killed and wounded dozens, including children. Lasting hours, it was one of the longest-lasting attacks by Moscow in the war now in its fifth year.<\/p>\n
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Zelenskyy called the summons in Budapest an \u201cimportant message\u201d and thanked Magyar for his comments.<\/p>\n
\u201cMoscow has once again shown itself to be a common threat not only to Ukraine, but also to neighbouring countries and Europe as a whole,\u201d Zelenskyy said on social media.<\/p>\n
After defeating Orb\u00e1n in a historic vote in April, Magyar has vowed to undo much of the legacy built during Orb\u00e1n\u2019s 16 years in power, with a particular focus on alleged corruption.<\/p>\n
The summons marks a stunning change after years of close relations between Hungary \u2014 both a member of the European Union and NATO \u2014 and Moscow, even following the 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n
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In March, Stanislavov, the ambassador, posted on Facebook an open letter to Magyar denying Moscow was involved in helping longtime Kremlin ally Orb\u00e1n.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really not worth scaring Hungarians with imaginary Russian threats,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThe embassy has clear objectives: to ensure the maintenance of normal bilateral relations, to develop mutually beneficial cooperation in the current situation where possible, and to protect the interests of citizens of Russia and Hungary.\u201d<\/p>\n
Magyar announced on Thursday that he was ending two crisis governing structures in Hungary, which were set up in response to the war in Ukraine and the COVID pandemic.<\/p>\n
Orb\u00e1n had declared a \u201c state of danger \u201d in 2022 in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and his Fidesz party granted him extraordinary executive power during the COVID pandemic in 2020. Both enhanced his powers and led to widespread criticism over democratic backsliding. “We are returning to normality,” Magyar said in a social media post. \u201cAs of today, after four years, the wartime state of emergency in Hungary is ending, and with it we are also putting an end to the decree-based emergency rule introduced by the Orb\u00e1n government six years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
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McNeil contributed from Brussels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar attends the first, out-of-town cabinet meeting of the new Tisza government in Opusztaszer,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70944,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16416],"tags":[36691,40958,422,40957,572,573,934,569,3215,330,350,325],"class_list":{"0":"post-70943","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-peter-magyar","8":"tag-anita-orban","9":"tag-evgeny-stanislavov","10":"tag-hungary","11":"tag-hungary-russia-zbigniew-ziobro-transcarpathia-magyar-orban","12":"tag-package-100024-ap-online","13":"tag-package-100373-mc-complete-state-national","14":"tag-peter-magyar","15":"tag-product-30598-ap-national-news-report-a-wire","16":"tag-product-32502-ap-online-europe-news","17":"tag-ukraine","18":"tag-viktor-orban","19":"tag-volodymyr-zelenskyy"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116572949331425070","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}